DAVID MOYES could have conducted two separate press conferences after Everton games this season – one to discuss his team’s performance and another solely to lament the ineptitude of the referee.

All too often the Blues boss has had to caveat thoughts on a promising display from his side, with a gripe about how they have been badly undermined by the match official.

And while most Premier League managers highlight decisions they disagreed with after a game, Everton have been hit particularly hard by costly calls from the man in the middle so far during the campaign.

Moyes recognises the challenges facing referees in the modern game, but admits his sympathy is being stretched to breaking point after yet another weekend when his side might have suffered – this time when Kevin Friend failed to award the Blues a penalty for a clear handball from William Gallas during the eventual 2-1 win over Spurs on Sunday.

“Being a referee nowadays comes with a much higher profile and it is also a much more challenging job,” he said. “The cameras and the technology now allow us to analyse every decision and for anyone who has never refereed a game I can tell you that it is very difficult as I do it most days in training.

“However, here comes a ‘but’ from me. What we’ve had in recent games, starting at Reading a few weeks ago, are decisions that have cost us points. I will always be the first person to look at the players to finish better or to defend better and not rely on decisions, but as you can see on a regular basis at the moment decisions are affecting the outcome of the games.”

The Blues boss insists referees need better support from their assistants – after games this season when faltering linesmen have also got major decisions wrong against his side.

“Some of the decisions that have gone against us have been made by the assistants – Newcastle and Wigan for example,” he said.

At the DW Stadium in October Moyes felt Roberto Martinez’s men received overdue leniency from Kevin Friend in the wake of their own prior complaints about refereeing.

The Scot claimed Friend and his assistants John Flynn and Mark Scholes failed to see that Arouna Kone’s goal was offside and denied Everton a couple more credible penalties.

He also felt they offered Marouane Fellaini, who was booked for catching Maynor Figueroa with his elbow, no protection as Wigan succeeded in rattling the Blues’ Belgian star.

However, even that was an improvement on the previous month’s woes.

Everton were denied two legitimate goals in their 2-2 draw with Newcastle, as Victor Anichebe saw play waved on by referee Mike Jones despite his header crossing the line – and an earlier strike from Marouane Fellaini was wrongly ruled out for offside.

Even Newcastle counterpart Alan Pardew agreed.

“I do feel that the referees are not being supported by their assistants and are, on occasions, being let down by them,” Moyes added.

“I will continue to try and support the Professional Game Match Officials (PGMO) but they must work to improve their standards throughout the game.”